The growth of data storage capacity and demands of data users has far outpaced the increase of data transmission bandwidth capable of transferring large amounts of data. For example, the advent of “big data”—the collection and analysis of large data sets obtained from various sources—has further challenged the use of traditional data transmission mechanisms. The discrepancy between the growth of data storage needs and limited improvements in data transmission technologies is so great that transmitting data between one storage facility and another storage facility may be prohibitively costly (e.g., requiring costly system upgrades) or lengthy (e.g., transmission may take months or years). Physically moving storage media may leave the data on legacy hardware, which may be disadvantageous (e.g., legacy hardware may not have access to security updates).
Solutions that involve the transfer of data to portable storage devices (e.g., network-attachable data transfer devices) and shipping the portable storage device to another storage facility exist but face many challenges. The capacity of data storage devices is not limitless. When a single portable storage device has insufficient capacity, multiple portable storage devices may be used in concert, such as in a clustered configuration. However, even in scenarios where a cluster uses one or more redundancy codes to improve reliability, durability, availability, and/or access performance relating to data stored thereon, if a device of the cluster operates abnormally or is otherwise degraded, the cluster operation of the cluster itself is degraded until such time as the cluster is reconfigured (e.g., by provisioning of a replacement for the malfunctioning device). As this reprovisioning process can be complex, a customer may have challenges in performing and monitoring all the steps necessary in returning the cluster to a nominal operational mode.